113 Ways to Characterize Your Protagonist
There are a lot of words that describe you and I at different times during the day. Our job as writers is to notice what those moods and attitudes are and put a word to them so readers will feel them. ‘Sad’ doesn’t have enough depth, but ‘bitter’, ‘stricken’, ‘grieved’, and heartsick’ all tell us more about the way the character is handling ‘sad’. They are much more compelling to the reader, likely to draw us in and make us like the character (which keeps us reading).
Here are more words with color you might like:
absent-minded
active
affable
ambitious
amiable
animated
annoyed
argumentative
arrogant
attentive
bossy
candid
capable
care-free
careful
caustic
cautious
charismatic
charming
clever
cold-hearted
compassionate
complacent
conceited
concerned confused
confident
considerate
cooperative
crafty
cruel
cultured
curious
finicky
frank
fussy
generous
intelligent
determined
eager
easygoing
effervescent
efficient
embarrassed
excited
exuberant
facetious
fair
fanciful
fidgety
fighter
grumpy loquacious
gentle intrepid
hard-working
harried
hardy
harsh
humorous
ill-bred
immature
impartial
impolite
impudent
impulsive
independent
industrious
inimitable
inventive
insipid
insistent
lackadaisical
leader
lovable
loyal reckless
relaxed
resourceful
restless
insolent
decisive
babyish
dependable
bewildered
determined
giddy
jealous
blasé
diligent
giving
jovial
boorish
discouraged
naive
hospitable
negligent
lucky
daring
demanding
doubtful
dutiful
malicious
mature
bossy
dishonest
glum
languid
disparaging
greedy
lively
busy
disrespectful
gregarious
logical
dissatisfied
grouchy
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, a freelance journalist on tech ed topics, and a monthly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, she is editor of a K-8 technology curriculum and technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: authors, characters, descriptors, writers resources Tagged: characteristics, characters, decriptions, descriptors
